


Just Hold Onto Me (I'll Hold Onto You)

by Abbie



Series: Sleeping With A Friend [8]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Porn with Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 22:47:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5266733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abbie/pseuds/Abbie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity needs a friend after realizing the guy she's been dating is a jerk; Tommy delivers on that and more, making good on an old promise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Hold Onto Me (I'll Hold Onto You)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [always_a_queen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/always_a_queen/gifts).



> always_a_queen requested for her birthday that I write the point in this AU when Felicity and Tommy escalated things in their with-benefits friendship. Two weeks late, here's 31 pages to tell that story. ;)

Tommy let himself into Felicity’s apartment, dropping his keys into the pocket of his caramel-colored leather jacket, zipping out of it and hanging it on his usual wall hook. He could hear slamming drawers—and one familiar frustrated growl—coming from the ajar bedroom door at the end of the hall, but he stopped first to slip out of his boots and set his motorcycle helmet on them underneath his jacket.

Tugging at the cuffs of the sleeves of his rust-red henley, Tommy padded on sock feet down the hall, not quite sure exactly what he was going to find when he opened the door at the end.

It could be a Felicity in tears, a Felicity in manic cheer mode, or—

“Fuck! _You_!”

Tommy’s brows shot high, lips tucking to swallow a smile.

 _Or_ it could be pissed-the-fuck-off Felicity.

This was a good sign, probably.

Something behind the door thumped to the floor, and Tommy pushed it open, knocking lightly with one knuckle even as he stepped into the threshold. “Should I have brought hide-the-body supplies?”

Felicity, standing by the foot of her bed and glaring at a cardboard box tipped on its side on the floor, a variety of junk spilling out of its gaping mouth, looked back at him over her shoulder, scowling.

Her hair was loose around her shoulders, framing her face in the fuzzy curls that said she’d decided not to bother with her time-consuming taming rituals post-shower, and probably wasn’t up for going out. Her eyes were bright behind her glasses, but with high temper rather than tears; anger was doubtless behind the flush in her cheeks as well. She was dressed in a loose linen knee-length gray skirt and a faded blue tee Tommy was pretty sure used to belong to him. The v of the neckline dipped fetchingly low on her breastbone, and as Tommy leaned against the doorframe, crossing his ankles and folding his arms, he thought the shirt really looked better on her anyways.

Aiming a kick—which missed—at the overturned box, Felicity groused, “He wouldn’t be worth the risk of felony charges.”

Pulling his cell from his pocket, he waved it at her, offering a sympathetic, if curious, smile. “Well, that only tells me _slightly_ more than your text did.”

She had texted him only _broke up. come over._

The lack of capitalization and full sentences had indicated she was upset, but the carefree demand on his time had suggested she wasn’t heartbroken. The minimalist text had left him in a queer mix of reflexive outrage—how _dare_ this dickwad break up with Felicity?—and guilty relief—thank god she wasn’t gonna be with the dickwad anymore.

It wasn’t that Jason had been an asshole to _Felicity_. Hell, he’d even been perfectly polite to Tommy.

But the perfect politeness had been kind of the problem.

Sighing gustily, Felicity whirled around, skirt flaring to show her thighs, and closed the distance between them, barely giving Tommy enough time to open his arms before she crashed into his chest. Tommy wrapped his arms around her as she clung to his ribs, cheek mashed over his heartbeat.

“He broke up with me.” He could feel her frown and set to rubbing a path up and down her spine. “No, I broke up with him.” Huffing irritably, she pushed out of Tommy’s embrace and turned to glare at the box—presumably containing things belonging to Jason—again. “Or we broke up with each _other_.”

Rubbing his lips together, Tommy moved up behind her and squeezed her shoulders, dropping a comforting kiss to the top of her head. This was just about the most physical contact he’d been allowed with Felicity in weeks. “You wanna talk about it?”

Scoffing, she shook her head. “What I _want_ is to exorcise every trace of that ass from my home.”

Tommy squeezed her shoulders one more time, indulging himself by trailing his hands down her arms before stepping around her to crouch by the cardboard box. “Should be simple enough. You guys didn’t date long enough for him to leave a lot of shit here.”

Seven weeks. Seven weeks that Jason and Felicity had been an “item.” Seven weeks that Tommy had done his level goddamn best to tolerate the smarmy motherfucker, with his hipster glasses and tweed jackets, and that stiff, perfectly polite smile as he shook Tommy’s hand.

Seven weeks of cautious, needling questions about Tommy and Felicity’s friendship any time Felicity left the room. Seven weeks of pointed remarks about what kind of guy Tommy was, and how maybe he’d be free to spend more time at bars and clubs now that Felicity’s weekends weren’t so free. Seven weeks of “Oh, you’re still here, Tommy? If you’ve had too many beers to drive home, I can give you a ride. Or call you a cab.”

(Seven weeks and change since the last time Tommy had been _allowed_ to kiss Felicity goodbye except on the cheek—and ever since, even that under Jason’s narrowed eye.)

Tommy set the box back on its base, scooping back in an empty glasses case, a UCLA sweatshirt, and—oh fuck, a goddamn string of condoms.

Tommy dropped those in with distaste, lip curling at the cheap brand, and covered them with a sweatshirt sleeve.

Felicity moved to stand over him, snorting. “Any of his stuff here is too much right now. I could just—I could _punch_ him. How did I not see what an asshole he was? Did you know? Did you know he was a dick and not tell me?”

Tommy looked up at Felicity from under his brows, giving her a wry expression as she propped her hands on her hips. “You know damn well you’re setting me up in a trap with this, but yeah, I knew he was a dick, but since I mostly thought he was a dick _to me_ , I didn’t tell you.”

For some reason, this only made Felicity look more upset. She folded her arms over her stomach, then pulled them apart to knot her fingers together. Face frustrated and distressed, she asked, “Tommy, why didn’t you _tell_ me he was being a dick to you?”

Catching the tip of his tongue between his lips, Tommy sighed and tipped his head back, propping his forearms on his bent knees. “Because you otherwise seemed to be enjoying yourself? Because I hoped for your sake he’d get comfortable and lay off?” Grabbing the box by its sides, he stood, jaw working as he stared determinedly at the UCLA sweatshirt. “Because I didn’t want to come off like a jealous ass?”

Because Jason seemed to have a problem with Felicity’s best friend being a presumably straight guy who had a key to her front door and half of one of the drawers in her dresser because he slept over regularly. Because Jason didn’t seem to believe that sleeping over could possibly be platonic.

And god damn it, just because Tommy _did_ want to have sex with Felicity, had been thinking about asking her before Jason popped onto the scene, was intimately familiar with the softness of her lips and the curl of her tongue and the exact octave of her pleasure—

Tommy dropped the box on the bed a little more forcefully than was strictly necessary.

He _had_ been jealous. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t have been perfectly capable and content with shoving down that envy and longing and supporting Felicity’s happiness, even with Jason the dick, except that Jason didn’t seem to want Tommy’s support so much as he seemed to want Tommy _gone_.

Felicity put a hand on his arm, fingers curling around to the inside of his elbow, and he looked over at her. She frowned, soft and concerned, all her focus on Tommy and off of her own emotions. “Did you think I wouldn’t listen? Or wouldn’t believe you? Tommy, you’re—you’re my best friend. My number one person.” The smile she gave him with that phrase was oddly chagrined, but she squeezed his arm, worry stealing over her face again. And underneath it… guilt? “What did he _say_ to you?”

Brow furrowing, Tommy blinked. “He was never super overt about it or trust me, I’d have just kicked his ass.”

Felicity rolled her eyes and turned away, but when she flopped onto her back on the bed, her cheeks were flushed. “He just— _god_ I feel like an idiot, I should have picked up on it sooner. He didn’t like you, how does anyone not like you?” Tommy was both stung that Jason had _told_ Felicity he didn’t like him and flattered that Felicity scoffed at the impossibility of such a thing, even as he eyed with interest the way her skirt had fallen to reveal most of one leg when she’d landed. “He was jealous and suspicious and _controlling_ and I know better than to date people who try to separate me from my friends.”

Making a face at the box of Jason’s things, Tommy shoved it towards the pillows and sat in the space it had occupied. He looked down at Felicity, the wrinkle between her brows, the angry pout of her mouth, and with a finger slid a little of her hair off her cheek and behind her ear. She looked up at him sullenly, and he smiled. “Are you sorry it’s over?”

“No,” she pouted. “I’m sorry it went on so long.”

He huffed a silent chuckle, eyes crinkling at the corners. “Then good riddance to bad rubbish.”

Rolling her eyes up  high, she sighed, but nodded.

Smile turning wicked, Tommy said, “Besides,” and leaned to pop a quick, chaste kiss to Felicity’s lips. Hovering over her, he grinned and waggled his eyebrows. “You are now free to reinstate the full best friend benefits package as you please.”

For just a second, she blinked up at him, and he feared he’d overstepped, blundered all over their mutable boundaries and rushed the timing. But then her eyes closed and her mouth spread into a smile, and she laughed. “Well, I definitely _do_ get my best friend back.”

“Damn right,” Tommy nodded, then snickered to himself. Suddenly, he lay down across Felicity’s chest, collapsing his weight on top of her, his cheek turned against the bedspread by her shoulder. “No getting rid of me now.”

“Oh my god,” Felicity groaned, whimpering dramatically. “Tommy. You are _so heavy_.”

“But I’m your burden to bear,” he singsonged. She groaned again, but lifted her arms to wrap around him, squeezing.

They lay there like that for a few minutes, Felicity’s fingers playing with the back of his shirt collar, Tommy soaking in her warmth and the thump of her heart under his.

“You smell nice,” Felicity remarked casually, still sounding a bit squashed.

He chuckled. “I smell the same as always.”

She shifted a little, as much a shrug as she could manage pinned underneath him. “Well I like the way you smell.”

Grinning and biting at his lower lip, Tommy pushed up onto his hands, leveraging himself off of Felicity—her ribs rapidly expanding in a deep, noisy breath—just enough to set his forehead against hers. She grinned up at him, eyes sparkling behind the lenses of her glasses. He smiled back, the tips of their noses touching.

“I like the way you smell, too.” She burst out laughing, her head turning away from him as she shook with amusement. Planting a smacking kiss on her cheek, he sat up with a flourish.

“You know we’re ridiculous, right?” Felicity said fondly, turning onto her side and propping her head on one hand.

“I do,” Tommy nodded mock-seriously. “Now.” He twisted at the waist and snagged the cardboard box, dragging it into his lap as he turned back to give Felicity a wink. “Let me go stash this out of sight. I’ll get rid of it when I go later.”

The curve of her mouth souring, she snorted, tone sarcastic. “Thanks for taking out the trash.”

Tommy glanced into the box and saw the string of cheap condoms had slithered back into view. Wrinkling his nose, he stood and plucked them out between thumb and forefinger. Shaking them above the box, he raised an eyebrow at Felicity, who had tucked her lips, eyes on the condoms, cheeks flaming. “Trash is an understatement. The only thing Jason had good taste in was you, babe.”

Flopping face-first into the mattress, Felicity muffled her groans of disgust in her covers. Chuckling ruefully, Tommy strode from the room and quickly hid the box in the hall closet. When he returned to the bedroom, she was sitting up and fuming again.

Her jaw jutting forward, face still red and brows pinched, she spat, “He was just such a—such an _asshole_! What the hell did I see in him? He was more obnoxious than funny, and he _always_ had to be right, and he was _so_ uptight about not liking to cuddle or hold hands, and the—the—and the _sex_ wasn’t even that good!”

Tommy rocked back onto his heels, folding his arms over his chest and raising his eyebrows. “Wow, Felicity, tell me how you really feel.”

Bouncing to her feet, she strode back to the dresser, yanking open drawers and rifling through for any of Jason’s shit she’d missed, presumably. “I mean it, though! He was just kind of mediocre in bed, and he just got so _defensive_ if I tried to give him direction.”

Tommy made an obligatory exaggerated “ugh” face when she glanced at him, trying to ignore the sick flop of his stomach at the thought of Jason in bed with Felicity. “That’s just selfish.”

“Ha!” She scoffed, slamming a drawer shut. “Selfish is _right_ , oh my god. He wouldn’t—”

Her mouth shut with a click, a deep flush spreading up from her throat to her hairline. Brow furrowing, Tommy narrowed his eyes and frowned. “He wouldn’t what, Felicity? Did he…” the threat of violence flashed heat across the back of his neck, flared in his chest. “...Did he _do_ something?”

She whirled around on him, eyes wide. “What? No!” Taking a deep breath, she let it go and rolled her eyes, looking everywhere but at Tommy. “No. Nothing like that.”

Tommy stopped, only then aware he’d taken a step forward. His hands eased out of fists. “Okay. Okay, good.” He rubbed at the back of his neck, not entirely settled, still. Blinking at her curiously, he ventured, “What _was_ the problem?”

Felicity wrinkled her nose, scowling, fingers fidgeting with her skirt. “It’s what he _wouldn’t_ do that was the issue.” She glanced up at Tommy, eyes skidding off his uncomprehending expression with a sigh. “He wanted me to go down on him but he didn’t want to return the favor. I asked two different times and he just—he got _so_ defensive, about how he wasn’t very experienced at that and was just too self-conscious to try. And okay, I could’ve lived with that, although I would have liked if he’d at least been willing to _try_ , but he still wanted _me_ to—to _perform_ for him, right? God, it was just so humiliating even to _ask_ and then be told no, but he expected me to do it anyways and just…”

She trailed off, and Tommy gaped at her, eyes wide, outrage bubbling up in his gut. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Head popping up in surprise at his vehemence, Felicity flinched. “It’s—it’s a big deal to me, Tommy! There’s a completely different subtext to a woman giving a blowjob than there is to a guy giving a woman oral, and if he _expects_ it like it’s his due but he can’t be bothered to reciprocate it just—it just feels degrading, alright? So I wouldn’t do it. I didn’t owe him head just because we were dating!”

“Whoa, whoa, hey!” Tommy raised his hands, blinking rapidly and quickly crossing the distance between them. He set his hands on her shoulders and rubbed gently up and down from collarbone to elbows. “I get that, Felicity, believe me I do. It’s _him_ I can’t fucking believe. Like god damn, you said he was selfish but _wow_ , what a fucking shithead.”

Sighing, she stepped into the frame of his arms and thumped her forehead against his clavicle. He obligingly folded his arms behind her shoulders, setting his chin atop her head. “You deserve better, Felicity.”

She nodded, wrapping her arms around his waist to squeeze. “Thank you. After a while you just—you start to doubt it.”

“Hey,” he said, soft and defensive, taking her by the upper arms and pulling her back til he could look her in the eye. “Don’t you ever doubt that. Not ever.”

Felicity offered him a half-hearted smile, and he kissed her forehead, lingering there momentarily. Smoothing her hair away from her face again, he smiled back. “I mean it. Never let some asshole make you think otherwise.”

Smile deepening, she let her hands slide from the small of his back to his waist. “Thank you, Tommy. Don’t know what I’d do without you.”

He winked and stroked his thumbs along her cheekbones. “You’d be fine.” She rolled her eyes and he shrugged his mouth exaggeratedly. “Eh, maybe a little more bored. Probably more lonely. Your life would be less filled with gorgeous man, and that would be tragic, of course.”

“Of course,” Felicity laughed. Poking him gently in the stomach, she said softly, “Fine or not, I have no intention of finding out.”

“Oh good,” he chuckled, “because I definitely don’t know what I’d do without _you_.”

Leaning her cheek briefly into his left hand, Felicity searched his face. Then, tugging at his waist, she went up on her toes. Inhaling sharply, Tommy dropped his hands to her hips and her lips brushed his. Once, twice, soft as a question.

Sighing, Tommy squeezed her hips and dragged her tight against his front, kissing her back, hinting at how much he’d missed her, how much he needed her. She wound her arms behind his neck, one hand sliding into the hair at his nape as her mouth slanted across his, opening against his lips, inviting him back, inviting him in. Stroking his tongue along hers was like coming home after a long time away.

They kissed greedily, a hungry intensity passing back and forth between them like a shared flame. Felicity tickled his scalp and the back of his neck with her fingernails, her other hand dragging over his shoulder, down his chest. She tugged at his lower lip with her teeth and, gasping, Tommy roamed one hand up her back, the other smoothing down to cup the firm flesh of her ass through her skirt. She trailed her lips to his neck, teeth scraping under his jaw. He groaned, and squeezed, back arching, hips pushing against her stomach.

Laughing breathlessly, Felicity shoved at him gently, and Tommy took a halting step back, not willing to allow any space between them, not while she was licking a stripe up his throat. Sucking a quick kiss under his ear, she pushed again, and the back of his knees hit the edge of the bed.

Tommy sat down heavily, biting at his lower lip. Felicity stood over him, lips red and swollen and pulled into a grin. Swallowing hard, he rasped, “I missed you too.”

Felicity laughed, a blush crossing her cheeks, and ducked her head. Raising one eyebrow and looking at him over her glasses, she wrinkled her nose and asked a little impishly, “Is it really like horribly petty of me if I say you’re _much_ better at this than he was?”

Licking his buzzing lips in amusement, Tommy raised an eyebrow right back. “Maybe, but is it still petty if it’s true?”

She laughed again, and Tommy looked up at her, flushed and happier than he’d seen her in too long, her hands still on his shoulders, thumbs tracing back and forth along his collarbones. He began to knead her hips, an idea rising up in his mind and dragging up with it nervous butterflies in his stomach. He wanted to take a risk. He wanted to do something for her. He wanted _her_. So badly. He just… he _wanted_ …

Pressing his thumbs against the ridges of her hipbones, Tommy waited til she held his eye. Voice low, he tipped his chin back, eyes hooding, and said, “Felicity…”

Brows twitching curiously, she tilted her head, hands resting on his chest as he drew her in til her knees hit the mattress. “Yes?”

Swallowing hard, Tommy slipped his hands up just inside Felicity’s shirt, resting on the warm skin of her waist, his thumbs drawing circles to either side of her navel. “Do you remember when we played Never Have I Ever?”

Felicity went still, eyes wide and lips parting. Butterflies exploding in his chest now, Tommy kept his thumbs moving, and beneath them, the muscles of her stomach jumped. He stared patiently up at her, and she licked her lips, chin dipping in a shallow nod. “I remember.”

Pulling his bottom lip through his teeth, he grinned up at her. “Do you remember I made you a promise?”

Her indrawn breath shook. “I…”

Searching her eyes, Tommy slowly gathered up the hem of her shirt, exposing a strip of stomach above her skirt’s waistband. His pulse hammered in his throat. “I said that if somebody else failed you again…” He leaned forward, her gasp loud above him as he pressed his lips against the skin of her belly, an open-mouthed kiss. He drew back again, finding her eyes on him round and fixed—dark and drowning, pupils blown. “I promised to show you what you’ve been missing.”

She shivered, breath hitching, fingers curling against his shirt. “Tommy, are you…”

Holding her gaze, he slowly slid his palms down over her hips, along the outside of her thighs. He reached her knees where soft fabric gave way to smooth skin, and gathered the hem of her skirt, the cloth bunched in his fingers, thumbs spanning across her skin to tease the inside of her legs. He dragged his hands and the skirt slowly, so slowly back up, stopping at midthigh. Wetting his lips, he took a deep breath. “Let me treat you the way you deserve to be treated.”

Felicity searched his eyes, chewing her lower lip, and for a long moment, Tommy was sure she’d reject him. And for the entirety of that moment, he was terrified he’d screwed up everything. It was too much, way too fast. He’d assumed she wanted what he did like an idiot, and what kind of asshole swooped in immediately in the wake of a breakup, like some kind of vulture, to pressure their best friend into sex? He was a greedy, vain, pushy, insensitive jackass and now Felicity would want nothing to do with h—

She sucked in a fast breath. “Okay.”

Tommy blinked, his mouth falling open and heart briefly thudding to a halt in his chest. “What?”

She let out a burst of nervous laughter, rubbing her hands up to frame his neck. “I said okay. Did—should I have said no?”

He flushed, grinning bashfully and using his grip on her skirt to tug at her. “No! No, no, no. I just—I guess I was just bracing for rejection. To be clear, you know I’m asking to go down on you, right?”

Snorting amusement, cheeks bright red, she bit her lip and nodded, fingers running along his collar. “I kinda got that, yeah.”

“I just… Felicity.” He took a deep breath, a line creasing between his brows and smile slipping soberly away. “You’re sure? We don’t have to, and I don’t want you to feel—feel pressured into this or like I—”

“Tommy,” she interrupted softly, rubbing the pad of her thumb against the hollow of his throat. “I trust you.” His lips parted, and she bit at hers, framing his face in her hands and stroking her thumbs along his cheeks. “There is _no one_ I trust more. You are my best friend, and I know that no matter what, no matter what happens or what we do… I’m safe with you.” She smiled widely, her eyes soft and thoughtful and full of something so warm it was almost hard to look at. “You always take care of me.”

Felicity leaned down and kissed Tommy, her mouth moving softly over his, lips parting wet and warm. Letting go of her skirt, he slipped his hands around her waist, not breaking the kiss even as he slowly stood. The front of his body slid against the front of hers, clothes catching, the delicious hint of friction as he pressed her back a step, two, guiding her with the press of his palms to turn her around, all the while opening her mouth to his tongue.

Felicity’s hands rubbed up and down his chest, and she licked at the roof of his mouth as she arched her body into him. Groaning, he broke from her mouth, squeezing her waist.

He swallowed audibly as their eyes met, dragging his swollen bottom lip through his teeth. Felicity grinned at him, a little wicked with her mouth ripe from kissing, and Tommy exhaled a long, ragged breath, gathering his control.

Massaging from her waist to her hips, he asked throatily, “You trust me, Felicity?” She nodded, biting her lips, dragging her nails further down his chest and testing the limits of his self-restraint. He shuddered, leaned down and traced her mouth teasingly with his own, asked against her lips, “You trust me to take care of you?”

She nodded again, mouth open and rubbing wetly against his own with the motion.

Laughter rumbling deep in his chest, he traced the tip of his nose along the curve of her cheek, nuzzled into the hair at her temple. Against her ear, he rasped, “Then get on your back.”

Felicity shivered, her breath catching by his ear as he dropped his hands from her waist, letting them drag down her hips, the tops of her thighs before they hung by his sides. Stepping back, he smirked at the hungry expression on her face, eyes wide and dark and mouth open.

Raising one eyebrow, he tipped his head towards the bed behind her. “On. Your back.”

“Oh my god,” she breathed, shaking a little as she turned and crawled onto the mattress. Tommy enjoyed the view until she settled herself atop the covers near the pillows, one leg stretched out before her, the other knee crooked a little over it, self-conscious. Lifting her chin, she raised her eyes to him—that look hitting him like a brick to the gut, leaving fire in its wake—and bit her lip, raising her eyebrows. “I am learning things I never expected about you, Tommy Merlyn.”

Chuckling, he gave her a roguish grin and reached for the hem of his shirt. “Oh, this is going to be a learning experience for _both_ of us.”

He whipped his shirt off over his head, dropping the henley on the carpet. He preened a little as Felicity’s eyes slid heavily down his chest, his stomach, to the vee of his hipbones over his waistband, a glance he could feel like a touch. His stomach clenched under her attention and she shook her head, blowing out a loud breath.

“That isn’t _fair_.”

Putting one knee on the bed, he tossed her a deliberately cheesy wink. “It was only gonna get in the way.” She laughed, blushing brightly, and he put his other knee on the bed, leaning forward to brace his weight on one hand. Circling her near ankle with his free hand, he looked up at her from under his lashes. “Besides, it seemed only fair that I take off the _first_ piece of clothing.”

“Holy shit,” she murmured, making him grin as he crawled up closer. “This is already about forty times hotter than any other time I’ve tried this. Are you a magician?”

Tommy snickered, settling to kneel by her feet and running both his hands up the silk-smooth skin of her calves. “This isn’t magic, Felicity. And you’re going to have to work with me a little.”

“Oh boy,” she muttered, eyes glued to the up and down passage of his hands on her legs from knee to ankles as if hypnotized. “That could be, um. I’ll—I’ll try.”

Scooting just a little closer, he got a firm grip just below her knees, squeezing to get her to look at him. He smiled at her reassuringly, rubbing his thumbs against her skin. “You’re going to be fine, babe. Just listen to me, and if you don’t like something or have a question, tell me.”

She giggled—actually giggled—nervously, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Communication is key in all things.”

He nodded, and then tugged just a little at her knees. “We work with each other and it’s good for both of us. Now… we _start_ … with you opening your legs.”

Felicity swallowed audibly, and her knees pressed closer together reflexively. “Oh, hell.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Tommy murmured, dropping down to press a kiss softly to her left kneecap. “Just relax. _Trust_ me.”

Laying back more against the pillows, Felicity blew out a long exhale, the muscles in her thighs and calves slowly relaxing. At last, she nodded, eyes on his face. Holding her gaze, Tommy pulled her legs apart, going slowly, pushing them just wide enough that he could scoot to sit between her feet. Her skirt draped over her thighs, just a peek of teal striped panties showing through the shadows.

Kneading the flesh of her calves, Tommy dropped his mouth back to her knee, pressing kisses between words as he murmured, “A lot of guys make the mistake of thinking oral for a woman is just foreplay.” He dragged his lips from her kneecap to the softness of the side of her knee, darting the tip of his tongue against her skin. “And it can be, but the thing is… it needs its own buildup.”

“Mmhmm,” Felicity breathed, her hips shifting against the mattress. “That… makes sense.”

Stroking his fingertips behind her knees, Tommy moved his mouth back around to the inside of her knee, pressing his tongue flat and dragging a hot, wet trail back to just above her kneecap. He breathed on the damp skin, sliding his left hand up to squeeze the back of her right thigh, massaging. “It requires preparation, proper… stimulation. Some idiots just go right to it, get their face right in there because they’re in a hurry, don’t wanna put in the time.”

He placed his mouth an inch up on the inside of her left thigh, drew her flesh in between his teeth, sucked. He let the mouthful go with a scrape of teeth, and Felicity gasped, a little noise in the back of her throat as her legs jerked against his hold. Rolling his eyes open to find hers on him, Tommy held her gaze and licked at her skin again, nipped with his teeth. Raising his head, he breathed deep. “You are worth the time, Felicity.”

She stared at him, chest heaving, and pressed her knuckles to her lips. Against the bedcovers, her toes curled. She said nothing, and Tommy’s lips twitched in a grin. If he did this right she wouldn’t stay speechless long. “When I’m done, you _will_ believe that.”

Her breath exploded in a nervous laugh. “Oh god. Um. Okay. I hope so.”

He waggled his eyebrows to relax her again. “Have faith in me.”

Eyes softening, she tilted her head against the pillows, hair spread around her in a halo of curls. “Now that… that is easy.”

Tommy found himself frozen, staring at her, laid out before him like a gift; trusting, willing. A lump of emotion rose in his throat, and he swallowed hard, feeling the heaviness of her faith settle on his shoulders, a weight that he took with quiet, solemn welcome. Trailing his fingers up her skin to the hem of her skirt, he dropped his eyes to their work and resolved to be everything she deserved.

Everything she should always have been given. If he had only this one chance to prove to her that she was worth every minute, every effort, just one opportunity to show her how much a gift _she_ was giving _him_ with this privilege—

Exhaling a shudder, Tommy swallowed the dangerous size of that emotion down deep and concentrated on the soft, thin texture of her linen skirt, pinched between his fingertips as he pushed it carefully down, down her thighs, an inch at a time. He raised his gaze to hers, watching for any signal of discomfort or uncertainty, but while Felicity shifted her shoulders against the pillows, she watched him unwavering.

Her fingers shook a little as he arranged her skirt at the tops of her thighs and she trailed her hand down her throat. Tommy watched the progress of her fingertips on her skin, running down her throat, along her collarbone, down her sternum til she met the vee of her shirt collar. The shirt that used to be his.

Fire lit low in his stomach, licking heat up his spine and the endings of his nerves as an image of her in nothing but that too-big tee shirt, laid out just like this with eyes all for him, scorched across the canvas of his mind.

Cursing softly, he shook his head. One dream come true at a time.

“Everything okay?” Felicity whispered, fingers moving absently on her breastbone.

Tommy laughed softly, rubbing his palms up and down the outsides of her thighs. He cleared his throat, eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiled up at her. “Just… taking you in.” Her eyes widened, and then she blinked rapidly, flushing deeply and cutting her glance away from him. He squeezed her legs to draw her attention back. “Hey. I mean it. You are…”

He drank her in, long bare, golden legs, those adorable panties, her shirt wrinkled up to reveal a strip of her stomach, the heave of her breasts as she breathed. The kiss-swell of her mouth, that gorgeous blush pinkening her skin…

Tommy swallowed, his pants feeling altogether too tight, anticipation whispering in the back of his head about all the reasons he was going to give her to flush like that.

“I can’t even believe how goddamn beautiful you are, Felicity.”

She stared at him, eyes wide and wondering and glittering with a well of emotion. Voice thick and shaking with sincerity, she whispered, “Thank you.”

Pulling his lower lip through his teeth, Tommy tipped his chin back and took a deep breath, never taking his eyes off her. “Believe me… thank _you_.”

Wiggling to scoot back just a bit, he used his grip on Felicity’s thighs to pull them far enough apart to lean forward between them, accommodating the breadth of his shoulders. Shifting his hands to frame the outsides of her thighs, he placed a soft kiss by her right knee, then another an inch further up the inside of her leg. Another. Again. The kisses lingered the higher they climbed, his mouth opening to suck at her skin, teasing with his teeth and his tongue. As he kissed a path higher and higher, his right hand slid down her left thigh, under her skirt, his hand scooping under her ass. He squeezed and kneaded at her flesh, thumb playing along the edge of her underwear.

“Oh, god,” Felicity gasped, the bed groaning as she arched her back. He glanced up at her, found her hand splayed over her stomach, eyes hooded and trained on him. She ran her tongue over her bottom lip, jaw flexing, mouth hanging open. “Don’t stop.”

He grinned and went back to work.

He stopped his kisses against her skin an inch and a half from the top of her leg, laughing smugly as she squirmed, whimpering softly. Smirking mischievously—he sat up, turned his head, and set his mouth against the inside of her left knee, pulling his hand from under her ass to brace her leg.

“Tommy,” she whined.

He paused in blazing another slow progression of suckling kisses, snickering. “Patience, Felicity.”

His left hand stroked a circular path on her abandoned right leg, around to her inner thigh, fingers tracing the trail his mouth had left—and further.

Felicity gasped, arching hard off the mattress as Tommy cupped between her legs, drawing his middle finger up lightly along the strip of damp cloth between her thighs. Biting down a little harder on her thigh, Tommy slid his fingertip down again, pressing more firmly.

Pulling his lips from her skin, he grinned. “ _Almost_ ready.”

Rolling her eyes, Felicity growled, “Tommy Merlyn, you are a _tease_.”

He raised his eyebrows at her, unrepentant. “Oh, you’ll thank me.”

“Might _kill_ you first,” she huffed.

Running his tongue along his bottom lip, he held her gaze with hooded eyes. “I promise you, you already are.”

“Oh my _god_ ,” she squeaked, covering her face with one hand. The other pushed her shirt up to show more of her stomach, and Tommy raised onto his knees to lean down and drop a kiss just above her navel.

He felt more than heard her indrawn breath, her stomach sinking under his lips. He traced around her belly button with the tip of his tongue and then raised his eyes to hers. She had one arm raised, fingers fisted in the pillows.

He trailed his eyes over her and considered asking her to take off her shirt. He wanted to see so much more. But he knew that would lead only to… distraction.

He had to remember he had a very specific purpose.

Settling back on his heels, he shifted the hand between her legs to grip the very top of her thigh and rubbed his thumb over her sex, reveling in the tension in her legs, the way she pressed her calf to his side, rubbed her ankle against the denim covering his hip.

One of them was going to lose it if he dragged the anticipation out any longer. He was less and less sure which of them it would be.

“Okay.” Tommy swallowed hard and moved his hands to settle underneath Felicity’s skirt on her hips. She gasped as he curled his fingers in the sides of her panties, a shiver tripping down his backbone at the discovery of the skin he’d never been allowed to touch before.

“Okay?” she breathed, her hand stilling over her diaphragm.

Nodding solemnly, Tommy took in a long breath, his own arousal throbbing between his legs, cock hard and _god_ he wanted her so badly. But he wasn’t here for what _he_ wanted tonight. Everything he was getting was a gift, a bonus.

“One more time,” he rasped. “Felicity… you’re _sure_?”

She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth, sucking on it as she searched his face, his eyes. Slowly, she relaxed, and when she let her lip go, she nodded. “I’m sure.”

Tommy blew out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d held and dipped his chin in a nod. Keeping his focus on her face, he pulled down on her underwear, and she lifted her hips for him. He tugged the panties down her legs and she pulled them back when he reached her knees so he could drag them clear of her ankles.

Without looking, he tossed the panties behind him to land with his discarded shirt and, still holding Felicity’s gaze, he twitched his lips into a smile. “From here out, this lesson is going to get a lot more show than tell. My mouth’s gonna be a little… occupied.”

Waggling her eyebrows, Felicity reached back with both hands to take hold of the headboard. She smirked, tipping her chin up, throat stretching long and enticing. “Show me what you got.”

Tommy laughed, hands running up and down her thighs. Some of the playfulness faded from his face as he began to trail his gaze from hers, down, down. His abs clenched tight, cock twitching in his jeans, and he didn’t hesitate this time as he pressed her legs open, wider, further, pushing her thighs toward the mattress. “As you wish.”

—

Nervousness and arousal warred in Felicity’s belly as Tommy pressed her legs to the bed and bent his head between them. “Oh god, oh god, oh god…” she muttered, fingernails scratching against the woodgrain of her headboard.

His breath hit her sensitive flesh first, a hot rush of air that startled her into a twitch against Tommy’s hold. His fingers gripped her thighs tighter, the pressure unexpectedly delicious.

Just as she thought he would let her die of anticipation, he turned his face aside and licked a long, dragging strip from the inside of her thigh, along the crease where leg met groin. Felicity tucked her lips between her teeth, desperately holding onto control of her breathing.

He latched his mouth to the unexpectedly responsive bend, teeth scraping, working her with a sucking pull that set a needy hum vibrating in her throat. He released her, and repeated the action on the opposite side.

“Hmmm,” Felicity pulled her lower lip into her mouth, biting down on it as Tommy shifted, taking his hand from her right leg to set the crook of his elbow atop it, his fingers tracking the wet trail his mouth had blazed.

“Felicity,” he breathed.

Just that, just her name.

His thumb ran, feather light, a line along the outside of her outer lips, heating her skin like a slow burn from the inside. The pad of his thumb, slightly rough, brushed over her clit, three quick, light strokes like striking a match. Gasping, Felicity arched her back, head rolling against the pillows as he did it again and again, that barely-there tease of a touch stoking the fire in her higher and higher.

“Tommy,” she bit out, his name breaking between the syllables, a plea, a demand.

He hummed, smug, a smirk she could hear and not see—and then his hand scooped roughly under her ass, jerking her forward to meet his tongue, a broad, long stroke from slit to clit that had her swearing in surprise and pleasure. He didn’t even pause, lapping at her like he was learning the terrain of her sex, an intrepid and eager explorer.

Felicity’s hips shifted and jerked against the bed, and Tommy hummed disapproval—the vibrations against her skin doing nothing to keep her still.

“Damn it, Tommy,” she hissed, letting go of the headboard to bury one hand in her hair. She slitted her eyes open with effort, and Tommy opened his to look up at her. The sight of him there, lips slick and shining, eyes night-dark and heavy-lidded, tightened her gut with a fresh wave of arousal.

Holding her gaze, he opened his mouth and licked her again, obscenely slow. Her hips bucked again, and he laughed, briefly turning his face to press against her thigh, shoulders shaking.

“It’s not funny,” she muttered. “I don’t do well at this ‘being held down’ thing.”

“I’m gathering,” he chuckled, voice rough and raspy and making her shiver. Laying his cheek against her skin, he narrowed his eyes at her for a second. “Can still work with this just fine. Just a little…”

He turned his hips, legs crooking across the end of the bed instead of beneath him so he mostly lay on his stomach. Letting go of her pinned leg, he scooped his hands under both her thighs. Meeting her eye again, he hooked her legs over his shoulders, holding her gaze while he pressed a lingering kiss to her inner thigh. “Better?”

Poking the tip of her tongue between her teeth, Felicity grinned and dug her heel into his back next to his spine, arching her eyebrows. “I can work with this.”

She folded her arms up over her head, stretching and arching her back. Tommy’s eyes traced down the line of her body like he wanted his hands and mouth to follow. “Really wishing I’d undressed you more.”

He bit his lips between his teeth then, like he hadn’t meant to say it, and Felicity paused, face warming. Drawing in a long, shaky breath, she said softly, “Maybe later.” His eyes snapped back to hers in surprise, reddened lips parting, and Felicity offered him a slow smile. “For now…”

Swallowing against her nerves, she got her hands under her back and unsnapped her bra. Working it free, she tossed it to the side, not bothering to see where it sailed. Tommy watched her raptly, his hands gripping tightly at the tops of her legs. Keeping her eyes on him, teeth indenting her lower lip, she dragged the hem of the shirt up, up, inch by slow inch…

Lashes fluttering, Tommy exhaled in a rush, squeezing his eyes shut like it pained him as he said, “Stop. Stop, stop stop.”

Felicity froze, a sudden shard of cold going through her.

Oh god, here it was. This was too much, too awkward, who had she been kidding? What had she been thinking? This was—

Gulping, Tommy opened his eyes, meeting her only briefly before his gaze dropped to the barely-exposed soft swell of the undersides of her breasts. “If you pull a striptease for me right now, Felicity, I’m gonna get really distracted.” He worried his bottom lip, still staring at the unsteady rise and fall of her chest. “I just… I have limits. That—we would—I’d get, uh… _really_ off track.” He closed his eyes again and shook his head. cursing under his breath. “Can’t fucking believe I’m saying this, Jesus. But don’t… do that. Not right now.”

Felicity tried to calm the wild thundering of her pulse, still unsure, self-conscious. “Tommy, if you don’t want, if you just, I mean—”

“Felicity,” he cut her off softly, eyes opening again and full of heat. “ _Not_ wanting is the opposite of the problem. This isn’t about what I want right now. This is about you. I wanna focus on you.” She hesitated still, and he grinned wickedly, running his hands along her skin from the tops to the outsides of her thighs, back up under her wrinkled skirt to her hips, long fingers curving to frame her ass. “I want to focus on every single thing I’m doing to you. I want to focus on every reaction, every single sound you make, all of the ways you move. I want to figure out what you like, and how to make you like it over and over and _over_ again…”

Felicity inhaled, long and thin, skin on fire and lungs burning from held breath. “Holy shit.” She licked her lips, clenching the hem of her shirt in her fist. “Okay. Um. Wow. Yeah, then, that. Okay.”

Grin positively wolfish—hungry and wild and a dangerous promise to _devour_ —Tommy breathed a chuckle, kneading her flesh with his hands. He murmured, “That’s the spirit.”

Gathering her confidence—and her trust that Tommy would never hurt her—back around her, Felicity tipped her chin up and raised an imperious brow. “Pretty sure you promised your mouth was gonna be too busy for speeches right now.”

His eyes crinkled with amusement, but instead of responding, he dipped his head back down and put his mouth back to work.

“Oh,” Felicity gasped, the sound trailing into a soft moan as Tommy sealed his lips around her clit, sucking gently, lips moving like a kiss, the tip of his tongue a fluttering tease. “Mmn.”

He kissed down her pussy, using his tongue to part her folds, stroking between them, longer, deeper passes each time. Felicity curled her toes against the middle of his back, his skin soft under her soles, the muscles firm and moving smoothly as he shifted one hand further under her rear, the other moving to the inside of her left thigh.

Pausing to briefly stick his thumb in his mouth, Tommy set the ball of his thumb against her clit, keeping it there with just the _right_ steady pressure, and concentrated lips and teeth and tongue on her pussy, startling a breathy cry from her when his tongue dipped inside. Again. Again.

“Oh, god,” she gasped, reaching down to drive her fingers into his hair, eyes squeezed shut and head tossed back. “More.”

He obliged, a long, slow slide deeper, exhaling then in a hot burst that made her yelp, spine jolting from the mattress as if electrified.

“Oh—f— _fuck_ ,” she braced one hand back against the headboard, the other grasping at Tommy’s hair, tugging lightly as he kept it up, tongue stroking inside of her. “I d-didn’t know… you could do that.”

Withdrawing his tongue from her in a long, slow lick, he laughed, vibration and a breath making her squirm and whimper. She wanted him to keep going, wanted _more_ …

Tommy removed his thumb from her clit to flatten his tongue against it, slid a finger down her slit, and slowly, _so_ slowly began to press it inside of her.

“ _Ah_ ,” she panted, high and needy as his long finger began to pump, curling up against her walls, tickling, pushing. Felicity scored her nails lightly along Tommy’s scalp, and it was his turn to shiver and swear against her. “More, Tommy. _More_.”

His exhale shuddered, and he pressed a kiss to her clit. “God, I love how you know what you want.”

And she loved how he _gave_ it to her, adding a second finger, almost right, almost enough, so _good_ —faster—deeper now—

She gasped, pulling her hand away from the headboard to dip into her loose shirt collar, caressing her breasts. “C-close.”

“Jesus,” Tommy whispered, then locked his lips to her clit, mouthing at first, then sucking, gently, harder—

His mouth pulled harder at her clit—

His fingers thrust harder into her, curled, stroked—

Tommy opened his mouth over her clit in a seal, and hummed low in his throat, the vibration shocking like a lightning strike, prickling, tingling heat whipping through her—and then all at once like a pulled ripcord, the orgasm crashed through her.

“T—” Her teeth clenched hard, heels digging into Tommy’s back, spine curving in a high arc. She pulled hard, once, at Tommy’s hair, then slipped her fingers free, nails scratching over the bunched material of her skirt and lower stomach while she pulsed and spasmed around his fingers.

He kept his hand moving through it, slowing the pace and depth of his thrusts as her walls squeezed at him, trying to keep him, hold him. He gentled her down from the high, his mouth moving now in soft, tender kisses.

Heaving for breath, Felicity collapsed boneless on the bed, tingling still in ebbing waves from scalp to toes. Her glasses had slipped crooked, the lenses fogged, but it hardly mattered. For the moment, she could hardly open her eyes, too rooted in the canvas-stretch of her skin, the broad palm massaging under her ass, the soft prickle of Tommy’s hair against her inner thigh, his lips trailing light and sensual against the join of her leg and hip. It was almost too much, overwhelming—the fine catch of not-quite stubble on his chin grazing her skin, his warm, panting breaths. The muscles of his back shifted under her feet and _god_ —with a shudder, one final aftershock rippled through her.

He carefully eased his fingers out of her, and Felicity whined petulantly.

He laughed—a little shaky. There was a sucking sound, and though Felicity tried to open her eyes, her lashes only fluttered. Tommy’s lips smacked, and then his voice, husky and warm and gorgeously rough, stroked across her like a touch.

“Good?”

“Mmm.” It was all she could manage. No. He deserved better than that. “Mmmmhmm. Mm. Yes.”

It came out throaty and slurred—and she only just caught the hushed cut of his gasp.

His voice stayed low and quiet as he eased her knees off his shoulders—not without a quick kiss to her ankle as he sat up. “Good.” He rubbed his hands up and down her shins, from the tops of her feet to her kneecaps, back and forth, as if he wasn’t ready to be done touching her. “You understand now that you deserve no less than that, right? Ever?”

Rubbing the knuckles of her left hand back and forth over the washed-soft threads of her blanket, Felicity lifted her right hand and flopped it around at him. “Mmmn.”

A genuine, delighted laugh burst out of him, subsiding quickly to warm chuckles. “Okay, good. I’ll be right back. You just… lay there. Bask.”

“Shhh,” she flopped her finger to her lips. “Basking.”

The mattress dipped and rebounded, creaking, as he got up, and Felicity stretched out long across the bed, turning on her side to watch through slitted eyes as he strode for the en suite. It was a pretty great view. She eyed his ass, lip bitten between her teeth, until he let the door swing mostly closed behind him.

Sighing, she rolled back onto her back as the hush of running water filtered across to her, smoothing one hand down the familiar cotton of her—once Tommy’s—tee shirt. She reached the crumpled fabric of her skirt and wrinkled her nose. With a quick glance to the bathroom door, she shucked out of the skirt without so much as sitting up, tossing it lazily to the fate of the evening’s other discarded clothing.

She should probably get up and find some pajama pants. Fresh panties at least.

But as she lay there, fingers and toes still buzzing with residual sensation and surprisingly unabated arousal, another thought occurred to her. She was loose-limbed and entrenched in sensuality, her hands stroking at her own soft skin, the long, thirsty line of her throat; between her legs ached a greedy emptiness. Her flesh throbbed with need, and the heat in her was only banked, a murmur of waiting sparks, hot-burning coals hungry for tinder.

She wanted…

She _wanted_.

The bathroom door opened, and Tommy moved into the doorway, scrubbing his fingers through his hair. He paused on the threshold, and Felicity rolled her head on the mattress to better drink him in. Broad shoulders, tapered to a lean but solid waist, that dark brushing of hair scrolling his chest, narrowing to a guiding trail beneath his navel that she followed with eager eyes. He’d undone the button on his jeans—no doubt to ease the confinement of the very apparent erection straining against the crotch of his pants.

Felicity sucked in a sighing breath and Tommy seemed to realize suddenly that her eyes were on him. Pink climbed from his abs, underneath the black curls on his chest, up his neck into his face.

“...Hey,” he breathed, gaze following the line of her body as she turned onto her side, rubbing one leg atop the other and pillowing her head on a crooked elbow.

Biting her bottom lip, Felicity raised her free hand and crooked a finger at him. “Come here.”

His throat bobbed as he swallowed, but he raised an eyebrow and slowly crossed the carpet. The corners of Felicity’s mouth curled invitingly and she pushed up to rise onto her knees. Tommy’s step faltered, his eyes following the fall of her—his—shirt hem.

“Oh my god,” he murmured, like it was a curious surprise. “Your skirt is gone.”

She bobbed her chin affirmatively, drawing one palm up her thigh, ruffling the hem of the shirt enough to tease. Tommy stood still a foot away and groaned, head rolling on his neck.

“That’s not fair,” he complained hoarsely.

“It was in the way,” she parroted loftily.

He leveled her with a deadpan stare. “Are you _trying_ to kill me?”

“Maybe I’m trying to _help_ you,” she retorted, holding her hands out to him.

He sighed, narrowing his eyes warily, but stepped to the edge of the bed, looking the handful of inches down at her from very, very close. “Help me die?”

Felicity set her palms on his chest and let them drag slowly down, enjoying the way his abs twitched under her fingers as they passed. She wanted to make that happen again. And again, and again…

She hit his waistband and his breath caught, the muscles of his stomach tensing as she curled her fingers into the loosened denim. Tugging lightly, she swayed forward, brushing against him so very gently. “Help you get rid of these.”

Tommy gasped, and grabbed her wrists, looking down at her hands under brows furrowed with a desperation of uncertainty that Felicity felt was wholly unwarranted. He looked into her eyes from under those brows, lips parting. “Felicity.”

Leaning in, she tilted her chin up and brushed her own lips across his, so open and asking. He kissed her back just as soft, just as helpless, like he couldn’t not. Breathing against his mouth, she let go of his waistband with one hand—and slid it down over the front of his jeans, following the thick, hard line of his cock with inquisitive fingers. “This needs taking care of.”

He _whined_ , and it lit along Felicity’s spine like a tongue of flame, his hips canting forward hard to press into her palm even as the fingers still circling her wrists tightened. “Felicity, no.”

She blinked in surprise at the soft denial, smile faltering. “No?”

Shocking her further, he kissed her again, and then again, slow and sweet. When he pulled, sucking, from her lips, he exhaled raggedly. Nose ghosting along hers, bumping the bottom rim of her glasses, he murmured, “That’s not what this is about. It’s not a favor you have to return. I _wanted_ to do what I did for you. It was a privilege that you let me.”

Relief tripped from her mouth as a laugh. “Tommy.” She nipped his chin, soothed it with her tongue. “ _This_ isn’t about favors. Or privileges. Or—or _benefits_. I want this. I want _you_. Do you want me?” She pulled back enough to look into his eyes, trying to show him the heat and hunger and truth in hers. “Tonight. Right here, you and me. Do you want this?”

He let go of her wrists and took hold instead of her waist. “I want this. I want you. But—you’re s—?”

“Take off your _pants_ ,” Felicity interrupted with a playful, insistent growl, pulling hard on his waistband.

He giggled—actually giggled—head tipping back and mouth a broad grin. Felicity laughed along until she decided to latch her mouth to that beautifully exposed length of throat instead.

“Ah—god damn it,” Tommy hissed, moving his grip to her ass as she sucked at his neck, kissing down to his shoulder. She bit him there, just a little harder than a nip, and he bucked hard in her hand with a strangled, needy cry.

Breathing quick, Tommy cupped her face in one hand, tilting her head up to catch her mouth in a kiss, intense and devouring. Fumbling a little, she reached for his fly as he bit at her lower lip, tugging it. She struggled with the zip, and he released her lip with a hurried hiss. “Wait, wait, wait.”

She stopped, opening her eyes and feeling drugged, but he looked certain as he had moments before. He held her eyes, open mouth curling into an amused grin as his hands came around to gently remove hers from his fly.

“That would have been totally fine if we’d started like this, but, uh.” He glanced down between them, eyebrows raising at his demonstrably impressive hardon. “The situation requires a little delicacy like this. Let me just—”

He stepped back from her, biting his lip against a pleased grin when she pouted, hands outstretched still when he moved away from her reach. He lowered his zipper carefully, and as much as Felicity wanted to just _watch_ as he shoved at his jeans, black boxer briefs showing, she was nothing if not determinedly efficient.

While Tommy shed his remaining clothes, Felicity set a foot on the floor and leaned across to the bedstand, opening the drawer and digging for a condom. Pausing momentarily, she took off her glasses while she was thinking about it, folding them neatly away from the edge, tucked between the lamp and the tissue box.

“God, stay… stay just like that and let me look at you,” Tommy groaned behind her.

Brows twitching together, Felicity braced her weight against the bedstand and looked back over her shoulder at Tommy—only a little fuzzy at this distance. Her own ass blocked him from waist down, frustratingly, but the look on his face was almost worth it. He was staring at her backside, eyes hooded, bottom lip between his teeth. Realizing exactly the show he was getting with her bent over in only her—his—shirt, Felicity raised one eyebrow and grinned slow.

“You like _that_ , huh?”

“So much,” he murmured, tilting his head and rubbing his fingertips along his collarbone.

Straightening, Felicity quickly tossed the condom at him, and he caught it against his chest while she grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head. Shaking her hair free from the collar, she faced him with both feet on the floor, a flush creeping warmth into her cheeks.

Dropping the navy tee on the carpet, she held his eyes, tucking her lips. “And how about now?”

Tommy gulped, his eyes traveling slow down her body, lingering, a caress. Lashes fluttering, he rasped, “So much.”

Blowing out a nervous breath, Felicity took the same opportunity to study him. And while she’d always known Tommy was gorgeous, that he maintained a certain physique under those excellently tailored and styled clothes…

Sometimes she forgot how tall Tommy was. What a just generally large man he was, in comparison to her. She was so used to the grip of his hands and the curl of his frame next to or beside hers that she didn’t think about it, more often than not. He wasn’t enormously tall, or bulky by any stretch.

He was solid and lean, soft in sweet places from comfortable living.

Licking her lips, Felicity let her eyes linger, helpless to a growing smile. It didn’t hurt that his cock lay heavy against his belly, no uglier or more beautiful than any other, but Tommy’s, and hard and straining and because of _her_. It fizzled sparks through her belly, sending a warm, wet rush between her legs.

Tommy cleared his throat, his grin somehow both smug and bashful. “Like what you see?”

Letting her bottom lip drag slowly free from her teeth, she gave him another lingering onceover, humming amusement when his cock twitched under the appraisal. “Oh, I suppose. You do have a really, _really_ great pair of legs.”

Tommy laughed, an arm crossing his stomach a little self consciously before he took a predatory step towards her. “Oh, it’s the legs, huh?”

She rubbed her lips together, flicking her gaze up to meet his from under her lashes. “Mmhmm. I’m a leg woman, what can I say.” She let him walk right up to her and reached out to trail one fingernail lightly up his thigh, the coarse hair on his legs tickling. “You just have such thick… meaty thighs.”

“I do, don’t I,” he murmured, watching the continuing progress of her fingernail up his hipbone, his stomach. His eyes raised to hers, smoldering hot enough to catch Felicity’s breath. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

Felicity swallowed and cleared her throat, helpless to the way his trailing eyes tightened her belly. Her fingers scratched gently through his chest hair, back and forth, getting familiar with the shape and weight of his pectorals. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Tommy returned softly.

He raised his free hand and trailed the backs of his knuckles up her stomach, between her breasts. Flicking his gaze up to her face, he traced along the soft upper swell of her breast, down the outside curve, then spanned his hand against her ribs, thumb bracketing underneath. The pad of his thumb grazed along the inside of her breast, and he leaned in to cover her mouth with his in a soft, hungry kiss.

Felicity slipped her tongue into his mouth, gasping a little at the faint hint of earthy tang lingering on his tongue. He rubbed his thumb over the softness of her nipple, circling the nub as it puckered. He sighed into her mouth, punctuating the breath with a kiss against her lips, her cheek.

“Want you so bad,” he groaned by her ear.

Whining impatience, Felicity wrapped an arm around Tommy’s waist and pulled him roughly against her, rubbing her stomach against his cock, trapped between them. “Want you too.”

Moaning as she scraped her teeth along his collarbone, Tommy swore and tossed the condom onto the bed, snagged Felicity by the waist, and hauled her with him onto the mattress.

They stumbled and tangled on their knees, neither willing to stop kissing long enough to sort their limbs, hands exploring over shoulders, down backs, over hips and waists. Tommy grabbed the back of her thigh in one hand, the other planing down her spine as he bent his head to drop open, wet kisses down her chest.

Felicity scored her nails lightly down his back, her goal to get a hand on his ass, eyes rolling shut even as between them she fumbled to wrap her fingers around his cock. He pulled his mouth free of a freshly-captured nipple and hissed as she squeezed him in her grip, thumb tracing up the underside, rubbing just under the tip.

“Felicity.” It was admonishment, warning, plea. Prayer.

She moved the pad of her thumb across the head of his cock, rubbed at the slit, rolling with him as he bucked his hips, squeezing her in his grip. Stroking her hand loosely up and down his length, she ducked her head to catch his mouth in a kiss. He sighed and kissed her back, letting go of her leg to cup her face, gently pushing her hair back, fingers trailing down her neck, stroking over her shoulder.

He pressed her back towards the bed, following her down and settling his weight on top of her as she braced both hands against his shoulders. Tommy moved his mouth to her throat, sucking a trail that made her arch against him, parting her legs around his hips.

Growling low in his throat, Tommy ground against her, the friction of his cock against her clit a delicious tease that made her ache to be _filled_.

“Condom,” Felicity gasped. “Condom now.”

Propping his weight on one elbow, he stretched his other arm across the bed, humming, “Mmm,” and continuing to roll his hips against her, a deliberate and slow rocking intended to drive her crazy.

It was working.

“Condom _now_ , Tommy,” Felicity demanded, grabbing his ass in both hands and digging in her nails.

“Christ, fuck, damn it,” Tommy hissed through gritted teeth, rocking against her forcefully, cock a hot, hard glide against her clit that made her moan. He froze, glaring at her, and she grinned wolfishly up at him. Rolling his eyes fondly, he raised his outstretched hand, the foil condom packet held between his index and middle fingers. “I was _working_ on it.”

Arching her back to feel the texture of his chest hair against her nipples, Felicity lifted her head to peck a kiss under his chin. “Not fast enough.”

Tommy blew out a loud breath, lifting more of his weight off her, to which she hummed displeasure. His tone was wry, soft. “If you’re not careful this is gonna go a little _too_ fast.” He rolled off of her, sitting up and tearing at the corner of the condom packet, eyes finding hers. “And I wanna take my time with you.”

Felicity sat up as well and leaned in to kiss his shoulder. “I just want you to _take_ me.”

He burst into laughter—making it all the easier for Felicity to pluck the condom from his fingers. “Oh my god, did you escape from a Harlequin novel?”

She blushed, but freed the condom from the packet, tossing the foil in the general direction of the trash can by her bedstand. “Maybe I did. All wanton _moaning_ ,” she groaned theatrically, and Tommy watched with his lip between his teeth as she rolled the condom down his length,  “and heaving bosoms.” Sighing, she poked at one of her breasts and stuck out her lower lip. “Not that _these_ are big enough to do any heaving.”

Tommy set his hands to either side of her waist and bent forward, his mouth soft against her breast, then against the other. Her breath caught as he trailed his lips to the valley between them, and something trembled in the chambers of her heart on the push-pull of his breath.

“These,” he murmured against her skin, opening his eyes to look up at her from under his brows, his hair a dark, mussed fringe across his forehead, “are perfect.”

One hand splaying between her shoulder blades, he lay her slowly back, lips mapping her chest, the cartographer of some hidden treasure he alone knew to find. Felicity buried her hands in his hair, fingers sifting through the thick, soft strands, a palm planing down the back of his neck, grasping at his flesh, greedy for the weight of his body.

“Tommy,” she sighed, arching her back as he took a nipple into his mouth, covering her body with his own. “Tommy, please.”

He raised onto his elbows, fitting between her thighs, and bit his lip as he looked down on her. One hand stroking restlessly over his neck, his chest, his shoulders, she moved the other between them, reaching for his cock as the head nudged at her. Taking hold of his length, she lined him up and raised her hips, and an intensity overtook his face, lighting his eyes bright-and-dark.

“Felicity,” he breathed urgently.

She tugged at the back of his neck, tipping her chin up to meet the brush of his lips. Slow and careful, he slid inside of her, the dragging pressure, the leisurely friction, drawing gasps and pulling sighs from them both, a single breath of air passed back and forth from her lungs to his.

He bottomed out, and held there, burying his face in her neck, arms shaking with the strain of stillness.

Beneath him, Felicity trembled, heat rolling over her in low, pulsing waves, and adjusted to the fullness of Tommy inside of her. She clung to his neck, his ribs, thighs a cage around his hips.

Tommy grazed his knuckles up and down Felicity’s side, mouthing lazily along her throat.

Dropping a kiss to his shoulder, she squeezed her walls around him to make him shudder, drawing her fingernails up his spine. He moaned against her neck, hips rocking into the cradle of hers.

“Just like that,” she whispered, lips against his temple. “C’mon.”

“Just like this,” he repeated roughly, thrusting shallowly. His hands ran up her biceps, tugged at her elbows til he could lace his fingers with hers against the mattress. Slowly, he pulled out, hovering his face above hers, tips of their noses brushing. He held her eyes, lashes fluttering—and thrust home, her mouth dragging over his as she tipped her head back, a soft noise in her throat. “And better.”

Pressing her hands into the sheets, Tommy set a rhythm, moving within her sure, steady, a rolling tide of pleasure, pressure. She met him thrust for thrust, wave and undertow, back arching, hips rocking, feet bracing against the bed, thighs gripping his waist, his hips.

Sensation tightened her belly, her walls pulling at his cock as he fucked her, and, impatient, needy, Felicity tugged her hands free from Tommy’s, roamed them over his chest, his shoulders, his sides and back. She grabbed a handful of his ass, squeezed. He hummed heavily, dropping the sound into her mouth with a crushing kiss.

Felicity loved the slide of Tommy’s tongue against her own, loved the way he thrust into her harder, rolling to get deeper, when she licked along the roof of his mouth. Loved the fire he lit up her spine from the friction of his pelvis against her clit. Wanted him to burn with her.

Breaking free of his mouth, she gripped the back of his neck and arced to rub her breasts against his chest. “Close, Tommy?”

He nodded, kissing along her shoulder, up her neck, breathed in her ear strained and puffing, “You?”

“Yes,” she groaned as he reached down, pulling up one of her thighs to shift the angle. “Stop—ah—stop _holding back_.” He faltered, looked into her face uncertainly. Pulling her bottom lip through her teeth, Felicity scored her nails down his neck. “Come on, Tommy.”

Eyelids lowering to half mast, he held her gaze and moved faster—fucked her harder—thrust deeper. His fingers dug into her thigh, brows twitching. Sliding a free hand between their bodies, Felicity began to circle her clit with two fingertips. “Come on.”

“Felicity,” he gasped.

She leaned up, kissed the side of his neck, nipped his ear lobe. Whispered throatily, “ _Come_ , Tommy.”

“Shit,” he hissed.

She was close. So close—just—needed him to— _needed_ him—

Felicity latched her mouth to Tommy’s shoulder and bit down, and with a startled cry, Tommy’s hips stuttered, strained against her, buried deep as he could go—with a long, breathy moan, he came hard, and Felicity followed, breathing a hitching whine against his neck. She crashed over the edge with him, spasming and pulsing as he pushed into her, pulled out, rhythm uneven, desperate, slowing.

At last, he stilled, arms shaking from holding his weight above her.

Trembling, aftershocks still rippling through her, Felicity wrapped her arms around Tommy’s back and dragged him down on top of her, pressing all his skin against her skin. They gasped and panted together, and Tommy let go of her leg, her foot sliding along the sheet to rub against his calf. Tommy scooped a hand beneath her shoulder, pressing firm, lingering kisses to the ball of the joint, the top of her breast, the ridge of her collarbone.

Sliding a hand into the hair at the back of Tommy’s head, she tugged gently, guiding his mouth back to hers for a kiss that was comfort, warmth and familiarity and wordless grace—home.

Tommy kissed her long and messy, the beauty in the sincerity, not the technique. They didn’t speak for long, long moments, his body still held inside of hers; they kissed and held each other instead.

Eventually, inevitably, beginning to soften, Tommy pulled out with a muffled groan, and Felicity sighed at the loss. He collapsed heavily on his side next to her, and Felicity rolled onto her hip to keep looking at him.

“Good?” she asked softly, stroking her fingers over his heartbeat.

He grinned, slow and content, the lines at the corners of his eyes crinkling in that way that always made Felicity’s pulse catch. He traced his knuckles from the corner of her mouth to her temple, brushing a tangle of hair behind her ear. “Good.”

He kissed the tip of her nose, and she laughed quietly.

Sighing, Tommy rolled onto his back and discarded the used condom in the little trashcan beside the bed. “I don’t wanna get up. But I should really clean us up.”

“We can shower later,” Felicity cajoled, chafing her palm over his stomach, tugging at his waist, wanting him to come back closer. “Right now, stay here. Be with me.”

Tommy turned his head against the sheets, setting his hand over hers and rubbing his thumb against her wrist. His eyes searched over her face, the line and curve of her body against the sheets as if committing to memory a masterwork of art. “How am I supposed to argue with that?”

Felicity’s lips twitched, and she tucked the smile between her teeth. “You’re not.”

He smiled back and rolled back to her, shuffling them both back up to the pillows and reaching to pull the comforter over them. “Guess I won’t, then.”

Heart a slow, steady beat of lethargic contentment, Felicity curled into Tommy’s arms, and together they let sleep settle over them.

—

Only a few hours later, Tommy woke wrapped around Felicity’s back, her hand clutching his against her breasts. He swallowed thickly as he blinked into the low lamplight of her bedroom, and took a deep breath. This was familiar; more times than he could remember to count, he’d woken just like this, sharing Felicity’s warmth in a hollow in her sheets, or his, her curls ticking across his jaw and mouth.

Well. Maybe not _just_ like this.

He shifted against the mattress, his skin tacky; the blankets, the air, their skin, the scent of their sex lingered over it all.

Tipping his chin up, Tommy blew a shaky exhale over Felicity’s head.

They’d had sex.

He’d eaten her out with the gusto of a condemned man at his last meal, and they’d had sex.

He should be reeling. Should be terrified and confused, panicked that everything would be different now, be ruined. That he had rushed them into something they could never go back from, something so far beyond a little kissing and wandering hands.

Instead, all Tommy could think—as Felicity shifted in his hold and her ass settled firmly in the crook of his hips, against his cock—was that he wanted it all again. He wanted to put her thighs around his ears and his tongue, his fingers inside her pussy, wanted to see how she liked to be fucked from behind, wanted to see what it took to make her swear while he pounded into her, wanted to know if she could be made to scream as she came.

And then he wanted to order a pizza and cuddle in pajamas and watch a marathon of bad TV or great movies. Wanted to bitch and moan as she kicked his ass at video games, wanted to go dancing with her or cajole her into making those cookies he loved.

He wanted everything he ever wanted with her before. Loved her just the same as he’d loved her for years, his best friend, _Felicity_.

They’d had sex, and he hoped they’d have sex again. And again and again. And she was still his best friend.

There it was.

 _Now_ he was worried.

Because what if she _didn’t_? What if she didn’t want—any of that, any part or whole of it? What if she wanted him to leave, and stopped calling or texting or asking him to come over? What if the silence went too long and the tension became awkward? What if Felicity decided she was better without Tommy around all the time, complicating her life, with his expectations and desires and blurring boundaries?

What if he _had_ ruined everything?

How would he live with that hole in his life?

He had gone stiffer and stiffer with tension and fear, and he didn’t realize anxiety had frozen the air in his lungs until Felicity fidgeted in his arms and he drew a shallow, thready breath.

Groaning, Felicity pushed her back against his chest and wriggled til her head was tucked under Tommy’s chin. “Tommy,” she rasped, sleepy and faintly pouty. “You are thinking _really loudly_.”

He swallowed thickly, shoving down the knot of worry so it sat leaden in his gut. Clearing his throat, he stroked his fingertips over the soft skin of Felicity’s breasts. “Sorry to ruin your beauty sleep.”

“Well,” she drawled, shuffling til she was on her back. She slitted her eyes open, hair all tangled, knotted curls around her face—stunningly gorgeous. A purr hummed in her throat, lips curling at the corners, and she used the hand covering his to fit his palm over one of her breasts. “Now that I’m awake, I know I said we could shower later…”

“Mmhmm?” Tommy raised an eyebrow at her, squeezing her breast gently, cock hardening against her hip.

“Let’s shower _later_ ,” she suggested playfully, eyebrows rising.

“Oh, you think so?” Tommy asked in mock innocence, a smile curving his mouth helplessly, the knot of fear and angst in his gut dissolving under the warmth of her attention.

Nodding, Felicity pushed at Tommy’s shoulder until he obligingly flattened onto his back. Sitting up, she let her hair fall around their faces in a curtain, leaning down to kiss him sweetly. “I do think so,” she murmured against his lips. “Right now…”

“Ooh,” Tommy hummed approvingly as Felicity stretched across him, breasts hanging in his face. He tipped his chin up, mouthing at the underside, bracing a hand against her ribs. “Yeah?”

Wood scraped, clattered, drawer opening and shutting, and Felicity sat straight again, ignoring Tommy’s displeased grunt as her breast escaped his tongue. She showed him the condom she’d fished from the drawer and gave him a cheesy wink. “Yeah.”

She tossed back the blanket, eyeing his hard, ready cock and shooting him a smug, sly look sidelong. Tommy just grinned at her unrepentantly. “Yes, you did that.”

“I did, didn’t I,” Felicity smiled brightly, showing her teeth.

The expression faltered with a gasp when Tommy pushed his hand between her legs, and he groaned appreciatively to find her warm and wet under his fingers. “Oh, god yes. And _I_ did this.”

“You,” Felicity sighed, opening her thighs to his hand, “are going to do more than that.”

Tommy slid a finger inside of her, but stopped, transfixed, when she ripped open the condom packet with her teeth. “God damn, that will never not be hot.”

Laughing, she freed the condom and reached for his cock, sheathing him smoothly. “So easy.”

He pulled his finger from her and sucked it greedily into his mouth, growling around it, “Gonna make you come.”

He started to roll towards her, but she put her hands on his chest and shoved him back down, his back hitting the bed with a surprised grunt. Swinging a leg over his hips, Felicity knelt over him and took hold of his cock again, holding him ready.

“Yes,” she purred, and sank down on him slow, steady, her body welcoming him inside hot and smooth and _just_ the right side of tight. “You are.”

They both sighed as she settled atop him, hands bracing on his chest, and Tommy kneaded his fingers up and down her thighs, her hips. While she adjusted to him, Tommy moved his hands to hers, brought one of her palms to his mouth for a kiss. “You good, Felicity?”

Licking her lips, she nodded.

Pressure rose suddenly in his chest, squeezing his throat, and Tommy struggled to swallow, voice tight and brows furrowed as he asked, “Are _we_ good?”

Felicity looked surprised for a moment, and then her face softened. A smile twitched at her lips, and she dragged her nails down his chest, hips rocking. “Always, Tommy.” She leaned down and kissed him, murmured against his mouth, “We are always good.”

“Okay.” He kissed her again, and she began to move in earnest.

They moved together, sharing a quiet rhythm, sharing a pattern of heartbeats, breathing, in, out, up and down. Felicity took hold of his hands, interlacing their fingers and pinning his knuckles to the pillow under his head. She was close, he could feel it, see it in the sweat slicking the hollow of her throat, the flush in her face, the pinch of her lip between her teeth. Small, whimpering sounds strained in her throat, under her tongue.

“It’s okay, Felicity,” he whispered, thrusting his hips up as she came down on him, ground against him, so close to the edge, so close to going over. Heat gathered at the small of his back, fluttered in his gut. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

She threw her head back, sighed his name, and fell; he fell with her.


End file.
